People-first leadership lifts performance

With continued challenges in attracting and retaining good people, and labour being the second-biggest cost on New Zealand dairy farms, it’s vital to understand what makes teams productive. How effectively teams use their time, skills and effort has a direct impact on farm performance, team wellbeing and retention.

DairyNZ research into workplace productivity has confirmed what many farmers instinctively know: leadership of the business and its people is the key. Leaders who enable their teams to use the resources they have most effectively will deliver the best results. How work is organised, technology is adopted, and people are supported all make a big difference.

Research, led by senior scientist Dr Callum Eastwood and senior people specialist Jane Muir, involved farmers, farm employees, and sector partners to develop practical measures for farmers and the sector to measure and track their performance. The research found that workplace productivity is so complex that there is no single measure that tells the whole story. Instead, a small suite of measures has been developed that will help farmers track and improve performance.

The suite of on-farm measures includes:

• Proportion of employees who would recommend their current job to a friend.
• Total labour costs (paid plus imputed) $/kg milksolids.
• People hours spent milking/day at peak.
• Team engagement.
• Hours/person/week and hours/ person/year.
• Kg milksolids produced per hour worked/year.

Tracking these measures will help to identify bottlenecks, improve workflow, and support more engaged and motivated teams. For example, adjusting team rosters or clearer task allocation can lift milksolids per hour worked and reduce hours spent on repetitive tasks.

Research also found that comparing workplace productivity between farms isn’t always practical because the inputs of physical assets (such as farm size, contour, infrastructure and technology), as well as the people resources, vary so much. Instead, the research encourages farmers to focus on their own benchmarking and improvements.

Work is underway to make it easier for farmers to measure workplace performance, including integrating these metrics into tools like DairyBase. For now, farmers can get started by recording hours worked, total labour spend, cow numbers and milksolids production — and by keeping an eye on team job satisfaction, which is central to a productive workplace.

Leadership matters most

We’re sharing this update to highlight the many levers farmers can pull to lift workplace productivity — and to reinforce that leadership is the one that makes the biggest difference. With that in mind, here are a few ideas for employers and managers to consider:

Clarity — teams perform best when priorities are clear and routine tasks are standardised. Explaining the “why” behind tasks builds confidence and reduces wasted effort.

Rosters and workload — rostered days off and recovery time after peak periods are critical.

Communication — use regular check-ins to keep the team aligned and address issues early.

Technology — automation and digital systems can reduce manual work, but training and support are vital to ensure benefits are realised.

Employment conditions — competitive pay, safe work, good hours, and growth opportunities are nonnegotiables. Team satisfaction directly supports productivity gains.

Continuous improvement — small, steady changes are often more effective than big overhauls. And more sustainable.

For more insights from DairyNZ’s workplace productivity study, visit dairynz.co.nz/productivity-study